remark

remark vb

1 notice, note, observe, perceive, discern, *see, behold, descry, espy, view, survey, contemplate

2 Remark, comment, commentate, animadvert are comparable when they mean to make observations or to pass judgment but they diverge in their implications regarding the motive and the nature of these observations and judgments.

Remark usually implies little more than a desire to call attention to something

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a bore remarks upon everything he sees

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a metropolitan newspaper remarked that no one today hopes for progress— Bierstedt

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Comment stresses interpretation (as by bringing out what is not apparent or by adding details that help to clarify)

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the dramatic reader frequently interrupted his performance to comment upon a scene

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neither could be induced to make an oral report on his country or to comment during general discussions— Boesen

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Occasionally the word carries some hint of the unfavorable interpretation that is often a feature of the related noun

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we cannot help commenting on a certain meanness of culture— T. S. Eliot

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Commentate is sometimes used as a substitute for comment to suggest a purely expository or interpretative intent

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commentating upon and collating of the works of former times— H. E. Cushman

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emerged from routine commentating to dramatic . . . reporting and interpreting— Life

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but the verb is less frequently used than its agent noun, commentator

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radio commentators on the news of the day

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Animadvert (compare ANIMADVERSION) implies a remarking or commentating on something that may be based on careful judgment

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I went to an old- fashioned school- All those who wish to animadvert on education ought to be able to begin that way— Calisher

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but this basic implication is often obscured by an emphasis on passing an adverse judgment

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we talked of gaming, and animadverted on it with severity— Boswell

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remark n Remark, observation, comment, commentary, note, obiter dictum can all denote a brief expression in-tended to enlighten, clarify, or express an opinion.

A remark is a more or less casual expression in speech or writing of an opinion or judgment (as of something seen in passing, something read for the first time, or something to which one's attention has been called); the term usually carries no implication of a final or considered judgment

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comments I have to make ... on the man .... Brief remarks, absolutely not exhaustive— Mailer

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had a genius for remembering the most telltale gestures as well as the most self-revelatory remarks ... of his master— Krutch

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Observation may suggest a reasoned judgment based on more or less careful scrutiny of the evidence

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he apparently was impressed by my observation that disease had made it largely impossible for Indians to smile— Heiser

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intimate letters . . . even when containing valuable critical observations, should not be published in the same volume as achieved works— Wyndham Lewis

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Comment applies to a remark or an observation made in criticism, in interpretation, or in elucidation of something

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felt. . . that her own conduct must be carefully regulated so as not to give rise to a breath of adverse comment— Gibbons

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puts in from time to time some critical comment that often extraordinarily clears up any subject one is talking round— Rose Macaulay

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Commentary may be used in place of comment for an annotation or gloss of a passage or text. More often, however, it is employed as a collective noun, designating a series of annotations or glosses provided for the elucidation of a text or literary work

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the translation is good, but... its usefulness could have been . . . enhanced by a commentary—Brit. Book News

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Even more often the word is used of a running sequence of oral comments (as on a sports event or the news) made on radio or television or sometimes accompanying a film projection

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we have the commentary, which takes its shape from the day's news, giving us a chronicle with pauses for explanation, interpretation, or speculation— Milton Crane

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Note applies chiefly to a written or printed comment or gloss on a particular point (as the historical origin of an idea, the exact meaning of a term, or the source of the writer's information) made either by the reader of an article or book on the margin of a page or by the author or editor to be printed at the bottom of the page (then called a footnote) or, with other comments or glosses, in an appendix

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the author ... was advised ... to subjoin some few explanatory notes— Gray

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Note is also applicable to a brief statement jotted down (as one of the minutes of a meeting, a memorandum of a point developed or to be developed in a speech, or of a point made by a speaker or lecturer)

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I've . . . jotted down a few revealing notes on the bride as I knew her— Salinger

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Obiter dictum is applied in law to an incidental opinion delivered by a judge on a matter bearing upon but not material to the case being tried, and therefore having no binding force. In general use it is usually applied to a remark or observation made more or less on the spur of the moment and not intended to be taken as a final opinion or definitive statement

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their tendency to wander off into obiter dicta on the iniquities of music publishers— New Yorker

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his obiter dicta were echoed from pulpits—5. H. Adams

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